Statistics:Approximately 1 in 12 persons worldwide, or some 500 million people, are living with

chronic viral hepatitis ;1 million of those who are infected die each year, primarily from cirrhosis or liver cancer resulting from their hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections .Many of those who are chronically infected with viral hepatitis are unaware of their infection as the virus can go 20 to 30 years before they develop symptoms or feel sick. As a result, even though a person has no symptoms and may appear healthy, the virus can still be detected in the blood and damage to the liver can still be occurring.

Viral hepatitis is among the top 10 infectious disease killers and the leading cause of liver cancer and cirrhosis. Both chronic hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis C cause approximately 80% of the world's liver cancer and cirrhosis that have contributed to the increases in rates of liver cancer in recent decades.(CDC, 2012)

Top Leading Causes of Death from 2009 to 2010

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_04.pdf

PHILIPPINES TOTAL DEATHS BY CAUSE

Rank Causes Deaths %

1 Coronary Heart Disease 57,864 13.732 Influenza & Pneumonia 46,900 11.133 Stroke 40,245 9.554 Tuberculosis 35,867 8.515 Hypertension 35,001 8.306 Diabetes Mellitus 18,512 4.397 Violence 17,152 4.078 Lung Disease 13,473 3.209 Kidney Disease 12,960 3.0710 Asthma 10,471 2.4811 Lung Cancers 8,518 2.0212 Road Traffic Accidents 8,175 1.9413 Peptic Ulcer Disease 7,423 1.7614 Liver Disease 7,232 1.7215 Diarrhoeal diseases 6,628 1.5716 Liver Cancer 6,358 1.5117 Congenital Anomalies 6,122 1.4518 Other Injuries 5,611 1.3319 Endocrine Disorders 4,843 1.1520 Breast Cancer 4,085 0.9721 Drownings 3,793 0.9022 Dengue 3,406 0.8123 Malnutrition 3,174 0.7524 War 2,933 0.7025 Rheumatic Heart Disease 2,855 0.6826 Colon-Rectum Cancers 2,839 0.6727 Low Birth Weight 2,720 0.6528 Oral Cancer 2,643 0.6329 Meningitis 2,584 0.6130 Other Neoplasms 2,531 0.6031 Birth Trauma 2,492 0.5932 Leukemia 2,486 0.5933 Anaemia 2,259 0.5434 Stomach Cancer 2,111 0.5035 Falls 2,109 0.5036 Measles 2,095 0.5037 Maternal Conditions 2,094 0.50

38 Suicide 2,054 0.4939 Cervical Cancer 1,856 0.4440 Skin Disease 1,620 0.3841 Inflammatory/Heart 1,406 0.3342 Prostate Cancer 1,290 0.3143 Epilepsy 1,250 0.3044 Lymphomas 1,127 0.2745 Pancreas Cancer 1,061 0.2546 Tetanus 956 0.2347 Ovary Cancer 949 0.2348 Hepatitis B 883 0.2149 Fires 766 0.1850 Uterin Cancer 745 0.18

Source: http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/country-health-profile/philippines

Latest WHO data (2010)

Based on the gathered statistic, liver diseases ranked 14th with 7,232 deaths or 1.72% at the total death by cause in the Philippines.